Chapter 22
The days that Brandonhad to work through the night were always the worst. And since he only had to do it four times a month, he figured there was no use trying to change his sleeping schedule. Which made for a very long two days of work. The only saving grace was that for the most part, nothing ever happened, so he was able to catch up on paperwork.
And right now, he had a lot of it.
Dealing with the Will situation had pretty much monopolized his time and he had let most of his other duties as the Chief of Police fall to the side.
So here he sat at two in the morning, reading permit and policy forms.
He had just signed a form for the high school car wash when the station phone rang.
“Cedarville Police,” he answered.
“Chief Graham?” a voice on the other end said.
“Yeah,” he said cautiously.
“This is Deputy Foster over in Woodridge. We’ve had an incident over here that might have something to do with the man you are looking for.”
Brandon was stunned. “Really?”
“We had several break-ins at homes and it seems the only thing taken was at the last house and it was insulin.”
Feeling it in his gut that this was the big break in the case he needed he said. “I’ll be right there.”
He hung up, grabbed his gun and phone and jumped in his car. He called his deputy on call for the night which just happened to be Tim and had him cover in Cedarville. He wasn’t willing to let the people of his town suffer if anything were to happen.
Fifteen minutes later he pulled up to the address that Deputy Foster had given him. He found the Deputy standing next to Chief Ray Scott.
“Brandon?” Chief Scott held his hand out and Brandon shook it. “Good of you to come.”
He nodded. “Tell me what you’ve got.”
“So this is the third and final house hit on this street. Nothing was taken from the first two but both had their bathrooms raided. And then in this one, the only thing missing is the owner”s daughter’s insulin.”
“How did he get in without any of the families knowing he was there?” They had entered the house and Brandon was now staring at a ransacked bathroom.
“This one was a backdoor and the first two were open downstairs windows.”
“Damn,” Brandon swore. He looked around, searching the bathroom for any little piece of evidence that would help him find this guy.
“All the houses will be dusted for fingerprints, but that’s not going to really help us since we know who this guy is already.”
“Did your guys find anything at the other two houses?” He was kneeling on the floor searching behind the counter.
“Nothing yet,” Ray said. “I’ve still got a couple guys at each place though, so here’s hopin’.”
Brandon made a noise that was a cross between a grunt and a groan. “I’m just so sick of this.” He stood. “How is one guy capable of all this evasion?”
“We’ll find him,” Ray said. “He’s starting to get clumsy and that means he’ll make a mistake somewhere along the way.”
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Hours later, Brandonwas on his way home from Woodridge where no new information was found. He was exhausted and frustrated and more than anything, just wanted to hold Leah.
Making the quick decision to go by her place instead of his own, he pulled in and found Logan’s car out front. His brother was sticking like glue to Melanie and that eased his mind some.
He found Logan sound asleep on the couch, with Carly’s dog Max loudly snoring on the floor next to him.
Some guard dog he was.
Logan jumped upright when Brandon took a step and a floorboard creaked.
“It’s just me,” he said when he saw the wild look in Logan’s eyes.
“Fuck,” Logan swore and flopped back down. “Thanks for scaring me half to death,” he said in a gravely, half-asleep voice.
“Sorry. Go back to sleep.” He moved quietly through the house and up the stairs to Leah’s room.
He found her peacefully asleep, both arms hugging a pillow in the middle of the bed.
He kicked off his shoes, stripped off his clothes and climbed in the bed next to her. She stirred but only a little and he dozed off.
He woke up to the loud beeping of her phone alarm that he was getting used to.
He watched her shut it off and then snuggle in closer to him.
“What time did you get here?” she asked as she yawned.
“A little after five.” He wrapped an arm around her, making it easier for her to lay her head on his chest.
“I’m sorry my alarm woke you this early then. I thought you were going home and I was gonna come by your place before I went to work.”
Loving that she had been thinking of him, he kissed the top of her head. “I missed you too much to go home.”
“Go back to sleep,” she said and he had no problem following that order.
When he woke up next, the first thing he noticed was that she was no longer in bed with him. The second, that it was nine o’clock. Deciding he could take a quick nap later, he forced himself to get up. After he pulled his clothes back on and made a pitstop in the bathroom, he found Leah downstairs sitting in front of her laptop at the table.
“I thought you’d be at work?” he said, moving behind her.
“My awesome bosses are allowing me to work from home today since all my stuff is being delivered from New York.”
“That’s today?” He remembered her telling him that she was having it shipped but he didn’t remember her saying when.
“Yeah,” she took a sip of her coffee. “They moved a lot faster than I thought they would.”
He walked into the kitchen to make himself a cup of coffee. “What are you doing with all your belongings?”
She sat her cup down and bit down on her bottom lip. A sign to Brandon that she was hesitant about something. “I’m...I’m not sure,” she finally said.
“Is something wrong?” he asked, moving back to the table and sitting down beside her.
She huffed at a breath. “Yes,” she said forcefully and then “No,” much softer. “I just don’t know what to do.”
“About your stuff?” He asked, completely confused.
“Are you just half asleep or are you being deliberately clueless?”
Having no idea what she was talking about he answered, “Well I am half asleep but I also really don’t know what you are trying to say to me.”
“I’m trying to say that I don’t know if I should bother unpacking any of my things here since I spend a lot of time at your place.”
“What does that have to –” He finally got it. She was asking if she should move her stuff to his place.
“Leah.” He turned her head so that she would have to look at him. “Are you wondering if I want you to live with me?”
“I know it’s soon and I know we just met and I know I have a crazy stalker person after me...” she trailed off.
“Those are all the same excuses I told myself for not asking you to move in.”
Her eyes went wide. “You did?”
He nodded. “I want you with me. Living in my house. Together. I was just afraid.”
“Afraid of what?”
“The same things you were, it seems.” He kissed her. “If you feel like you are ready, I would love for you to come live with me.”
She smiled and playfully said, “I don’t know, this is just so sudden. I’m gonna have to think about it.”
He tickled her ribs and she laughed uncontrollably. “Hey, hey, hey,” she said through her laughter. “I am so ticklish.”
“Tell me yes then.” He let up but only a little.
“Okay, okay,” she finally shouted.
He hauled her onto his lap, her legs wrapping around his waist of their own accord. “Seriously?” he asked, their foreheads touching.
“Seriously,” she answered, kissing him.
Their kisses went on and on until she practically jumped off his lap. “Oh my God!” she shrieked. “I’m gonna live with a boy.”
He watched as she twirled around the kitchen. “I prefer the term man.”
Passing by him she slapped his shoulder. “You know what I mean. I’ve never lived with a boyfriend before.”
“Neither have I,” he said, loving her happy reaction.
“I would hope not since it’s pretty obvious to me that you like women.”
“Hysterical,” he deadpanned.
She stopped moving suddenly. “How is this going to work?”
“What do you mean?” he asked, taking a slow sip of his finally cooled coffee.
“I live here for free and I don’t really have a lot of extra money, so I can’t really afford to pay rent.”
His mug almost slipped from his hand and coffee sloshed over the top when it landed hard on the table. He was going to shout at her that she was insane if she thought that he wanted her to pay rent. But he quickly calmed. “Leah,” he stood and went to her, “I don’t want us to be roommates, I want us to live together as a couple. A couple who shares things. All things. But I don’t want or even need your money. Hell, my house is paid off.”
“Won’t people think –”
“Stop right there,” he told her. “I don’t care what people think and I thought you were starting to get to that point, too?”
“I was,” she sighed. “I am.” She leaned into him, her head resting against his chest. “I would just hate it if people thought bad of you. This is your town.”
“This is your town now too, Leah, and you have to start remembering that no one cares.”
He stroked her back, reassuringly.
Against his chest she mumbled, “So should I be telling the truck to drop my stuff at your house?”
“Our house,” he said, pulling away to look at her, “and yes.”